The present invention relates to a technical field of a disk storage medium processing apparatus which can be used for audio instruments, image instruments, information instruments, communication instruments, measuring instruments, and the like to record information onto and reproduce information from disks such as CDs or DVDs and, more particularly, to a technical field of a disk storage medium processing apparatus which can hold a disk at the periphery thereof to convey the disk and can be formed compactly.
For example, for audio instruments, many disk recording/reproduction apparatuses of a type using a CD storing a plurality of songs have been conventionally developed. As one of such conventional disk recording/reproduction apparatuses, a disk storage medium processing apparatus has been proposed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2002-334507, which comprises an apparatus body having a disk loading/unloading slot, a traverse unit which is disposed in the apparatus body to conduct at least one of recording, deletion, and reproduction of information onto or from a disk, and a disk conveying means which conveys the disk into the apparatus body when a part of the disk is inserted through the disk loading/unloading slot and which ejects a part of the disk through the disk loading/unloading slot. In the disk storage medium processing apparatus, the disk conveying means comprises at least a first disk conveying arm which is pivotally attached to the apparatus body and which has at its end a driving roller capable of holding the periphery of the disk and a second disk conveying arm which is pivotally attached to the apparatus body and which has at its end a driven roller capable of holding the periphery of the disk, wherein the driving roller is driven to rotate by a motor. The first and second disk conveying arms pivot while the periphery of the disk is held by the driving roller and the driven roller, thereby conveying the disk.
Since only the periphery of the disk is touched by a pair of the driving roller and the driven roller, the conventional disk storage medium processing apparatus can convey the disk without scratching a recording surface of the disk.
In the disk storage medium processing apparatus disclosed in the aforementioned Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2002-334507, the disk conveying means holds the disk of which a portion is inserted through the disk loading/unloading slot to convey the disk to a store position in the apparatus body and holds the disk at the store position to eject a portion of the disk, not for conveying the disk between the store position and the traverse unit. Therefore, another conveying means is required to convey the disk between the store position and the traverse unit and, in addition, another means for centering the disk relative, to the traverse unit is required. Accordingly, the disk storage medium processing apparatus must have complex structure and the increased number of parts. This makes the reduction in size of the apparatus difficult.
Further, since control is required for the conveyance of the disk between the disk loading/unloading slot and the store position, the conveyance of the disk between the store position and the traverse unit, and the centering of the disk relative to the traverse unit, the control for disk conveyance must be complex.
Since the periphery of the disk is held by the driving roller and the driven roller, the disk can be held somehow. Since the disk is held by the two rollers which both rotate, however, it is desired to hold the disk in a more stable state.